Comments on: Lesbian officers accuse D.C. police of discriminationhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/
America's Leading LGBT News SourceWed, 14 Feb 2018 13:55:00 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5By: brianhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62638
Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:55:47 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62638*****
I have however seen total retaliation against anyone who complains about the conduct of management. If what these officers are saying is true, and I have no reason to doubt it the bigger issue is how they were treated after there complaint.
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I hear that, GD.

MPD is blessed with a diverse, highly-educated, highly-trained and highly-motivated force. Fear and intimidation is no way to command such professionals.

Thank you for your comments here. And thank you for your service to all of our city’s communities.

]]>By: gdhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62599
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:20:35 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62599I am a straight male who has been a member of MPD for many years. I can say this, at the officer level I cannot recall an instance where someone was treated diffrent because they are gay. In fact, I have family members on other departments and compared to those MPD is light years ahead in having members who happen to be gay being able to be open about tehir life style. In fact. a very well liked and well know Sergeant is openly gay. I have however seen total retaliation against anyone who complains about the conduct of management. If what these officers are saying is true, and I have no reason to doubt it the bigger issue is how they were treated after there complaint. I hope things work out for these two and that the offending parties learn a lesson
]]>By: brianhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62551
Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:42:25 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62551*****
“I resent people pulling the gay card, just as much as pullinf the Race card. it weakens the chance for acceptance and unbiased treatment. Too many people cry wolf when there is no wolf around. Been there, seen it, lived it.”
*****

Resent? Jayson, do tell. Just exactly what do you refer to as “pulling the gay card” with respect to bias in DC’s Metropolitan Police Department?

Be reminded (and/or informed), it was not all that long ago that both *institutional* AND *individual* anti-LGBT bias was alive and thriving in the highest echelons of MPD. A MPD Assistant Chief was actually tied to what amounted to criminal extortion of gay and bisexual patrons of LGBT business establishments in DC.

Frankly, that’s one of the reasons Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier’s immediate predecessor, Chief Charles Ramsey was brought in from Chicago. That’s also one of the reasons Chief Ramsey later established MPD’s award-winning GLLU unit– a unit Chief Lanier sought to degrade and dismantle as soon as she became chief in 2007.

Much more recently than MPD’s anti-LGBT extortion practices of the late 90’s– I have personally witnessed and experienced– up close and personal– INDIVIDUAL homophobic bias by MPD officers in DC, which required the involvement, multiple times, of MPD’s GLLU unit.

That’s not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of record. I could say a lot more about that, but our family happens to have a particular abiding respect for the service, sacrifice and honor of the overwhelming number of professional men and women of MPD, and that of those serving in other law enforcement agencies all across our nation.

However, be assured, Jayson, when it comes to anti-LGBT bias at MPD– both INDIVIDUAL and INSTITUTIONAL– I really have “been there, seen it, lived it.”

Moreover, for quite a number of years, DC’s undisputed LGBT community-supported public-safety/ community policing advocacy organizations, GLAA, GLOV, RRC and DCTC, as well as our city’s LGBT press, have had to repeatedly chronicle instances of MPD failures with respect to LGBT public safety, that in the aggregate and in the opinion of many, amount to continuing INSTITUTIONAL anti-LGBT bias at MPD, at the very least.

Unfortunately, just this summer, Chief Lanier and/or her immediate office(s) has continued to publicly send mixed messages regarding the need for MPD’s GLLU core unit, as well as MPD’s commitment to enforce and respect the provisions of DC’s 23-year old Bias-Related Crimes Act (hate crimes law). That too, is a matter of record.

But hope springs eternal. Every new day can bring new opportunities for Mayor Gray, the Council and MPD’s chiefs to get ahead of MPD’s institutional bias problem and to seriously deter the ever growing threat of violent anti-LGBT hate crimes that threaten the physical and mental well-being of our LGBT residents, our families and our neighborhoods.

]]>By: Jaysonhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62470
Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:19:59 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62470Is it possible other officers just don’t like them due to their personalies? I know lots of people, Lesbians, Gays, Straights, Whites, Blacks,Latinos and Asians whom I have worked with over the years that I simply didn’t like. I resent people pulling the gay card, just as much as pullinf the Race card. it weakens the chance for acceptance and unbiased treatment. Too many people cry wolf when there is no wolf around. Been there, seen it, lived it.
]]>By: Women Sex Health » Lesbian Officers Accuse DC Police of Discriminationhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62406
Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:53:24 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62406[…] have filed a disposition lawsuit opposite a Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., a Washington Blade reported. The suit, filed in Jan 2011 by Det. Kennis M. Weeks and Officer Tonia L. Jones, charges a […]
]]>By: Lesbian Officers Accuse DC Police of Discrimination - eGay Cafehttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62386
Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:24:06 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62386[…] have filed a bias lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., the Washington Blade reported. The suit, filed in January 2011 by Det. Kennis M. Weeks and Officer Tonia L. Jones, […]
]]>By: brianhttp://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/08/15/lesbian-officers-accuse-d-c-police-of-discrimination/#comment-62139
Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:48:44 +0000http://www.washingtonblade.com/?p=47463#comment-62139****
‘I would hope that the department has gotten better since the time of these allegations,’ said acting D.C. City Council Chair Phil Mendelson about a bias lawsuit filed by two lesbian police officers.
…
“On Nov. 19, 2007, MDP’s Assistant Chief, Peter Newsham, made a decision not to investigate plaintiff’s internal EEO complaints,” the lawsuit says.
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Only credible, rigorous oversight of MPD’s behind-the-scenes operations at its highest levels, by COUNCIL, is likely to bring said MPD Institutional Bias and Discrimination to an end.

Kudos to the Blade for continuing to drill down on cases of apparent MPD Institutional Bias.

Yes, MPD’s responsibility in this case occurred in 2007, but it was also just after Chief Lanier’s tenure began– and shortly after Lanier’s infamous attempt to all but destroy MPD’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit’s (GLLU) core team in 2007.

I agree with Chair Mendelson that the city should seek to settle this embarrassing claim. Indeed, it is outrageous that MPD failed to even investigate the EEO claims of the lesbian MPD officers in 2007.

Chiefs Lanier and Newsham should still be called to account to Council’s Judiciary Committee for that MPD failure to investigate internally.

Moreover, respectfully, to all of our Councilmemebers, I’m afraid “hoping” that the department has gotten better since the time of these allegations, is no longer sufficient MPD oversight by COUNCIL.

MPD’s chiefs appear to have an extraordinary set of tin ears when it comes to addressing Institutional anti-LGBT Bias right under their own noses.

Last month, in publicly addressing allegations of MPD Transphobia by Human Rights Watch in a report by the Blade, we saw A.C. Newsham go out of his way to DENIGRATE the messenger (HRW) with more MPD obfuscating double-speak, rather than address MPD’s INSTITUTIONAL BIAS issue…

“Human Rights Watch uses anecdotal examples that are really uncorroborated and unsupported to make their point,” he said. “That being said, there’s nothing to suggest either that they are true or not true. They could potentially be true; they could potentially be not true.”

Also, just a few weeks ago, IMO, MPD Chief of Police Cathy Lanier appeared to DENIGRATE and impeach the account of two gay men brutally beaten in Eckington. Lanier asserted a misleading account of what she claimed *BOTH* victims said in a single media interview. Lanier’s representation of what either victim reported was just plain false on its face.

A similar outrageously misleading account, again, in effect casting doubt upon the gay victims of that hate crime was permitted to be posted on MPD’s 5th District listserv a few days later.

Under DC’s hate crimes law (22-3701). MPD is responsible for protecting the rights of victims of hate crimes. That the chief of police and/or her MPD Office of Communications appear to be trampling on the rights of LGBT hate crimes victims– even in the midst of an ongoing MPD investigation of said hate crime– is outrageous conduct.

That is just another example of ongoing MPD INSTITUTIONAL BIAS against LGBT residents and hate crimes victims.

COUNCIL needs to thoroughly investigate the unethical PR operations of MPD’s Office of Communications.